Bringing
together the puzzling pieces of the widespread Knights Templar society has consumed many
years of work by diligent researchers, and only recently has the full
story of these influential knights come to light. Historians found it
easy to look only at the years 1119-1312
when the Templars operated as a military unit, but then lamented that so
much about the Templars remained a mystery. By probing the years
before and after the church officially recognized the Templars -- that is to say their
roots and their heritage -- the full story of the Templars becomes
surprisingly clear. This work was begun by Charles Addison, continued by
Malcolm Barber, and is now brought a large step forward by Sanford Holst.

The
Templars were remarkable people drawn from the highest and lowest reaches of
society....

Traditionally
we hear people talk only about the white-clad knights among the Templars. It
is true that they were very important and came from some of the richest and most
powerful families in Europe. But only one out of every eight Templars was a
knight from the noble class.

Six
out of eight Templars were skilled men dressed in brown or black robes with
the red Templar cross. They served as soldiers around the knight, and as
craftsmen who worked stone, iron, leather and farmlands to produce all the
things needed by their society.

The
last "one out of every eight" Templars was a well-educated cleric
skilled in languages and business affairs. These men wore green robes with
the red Templar cross, and were essential to building the famous
Templar banking system and the Order's legendary wealth. Often overlooked in most Templar
histories, many of these men were drawn from the Lebanese people in the Holy Land
who were devoutly Christian, and were descendants of the well-educated
Phoenician sea-traders. In King Solomon's day, the Phoenicians had helped
build the Temple that became the namesake of the Templars.

The
order of the Temple was at this period divided into the three great classes
of knights, priests, and serving brethren, all bound together by their vow
of obedience to the Master of the Temple at Jerusalem, the chief of the
entire fraternity.

--Charles
Addison

Third
came the clerics -- priests
who acted as chaplains to the order and, because they were the only group of
the three with any claim to literacy,
frequently acted as scribes and record keepers and were responsible for
other duties of a nonmilitary character. The clericsalso
wore the Templar cross, on a green mantle.

--John
J. Robinson

Templar
initiation

Then
the Inquisition burned hundreds of Templars to death and forced others to
live outside the law....

King
Philip IV of France began to attack the Templars in 1307, hoping to
enrich himself. But it was the pope put the Templars on trial, as we see in
the Chinon Parchment and many other records. And he sent his inquisitors to torture the
Templars into false confessions, resulting in hundreds of Templars
suffering fiery
death tied to a stake. This tragedy inspired Dante to begin writing his Inferno
in 1308.

But
kings outside of France delayed making any arrests of Templars in their lands,
even though Pope Clement V ordered them to do so. That allowed many Templars to simply
disappear.

The
surviving
Templars found a champion in King Dinis of Portugal, who refused to arrest
members of this knightly order in his country. He then founded the Order of
Christ, gave all the Templar estates in Portugal to that new order, and
accepted all Portuguese Templars into it. But it took so long for him to
make these arrangements that few of the former Templars outside his country
came to join it.

In
most other lands the Templars were forced to survive on their own resources
and live
"underground" existences outside the law.

When
the council of Canterbury met in London on 14 November therefore, the
inquisitors began pressing for the use of torture, and on 9 December they
asked the king if they could proceed "according to ecclesiastical
constitutions", which meant the use of torture.

--Malcolm
Barber

Being asked concerning the other brothers in
Scotland, he stated that John de Huefletewas
Preceptor of Blancradok, the chief house of the order in that country, and
that he and the other brethren, having heard of the arrest of the Templars,
threw off their habits and fled, and that he had not since heard aught
concerning them.

--Charles
Addison

Jacques
de Molay being burned at the stake

And
surviving Templars helped cause the fall of kings and the weakening of the Vatican....

Having
seen the inner workings of Templar society in all the events that happened
before their disappearance, we are then able to follow the lives and
actions of Templars in the years that followed.

One
of the major accusations against them during their trials was the intense
level of secrecy the Templars practiced in their affairs. They now put that to good
use in helping each other survive outside the law.

They were
also able to draw support and new members from other people who were
wrongly attacked by kings or the Vatican. A secretive society that included
knights, clerics and craftsmen sponsored the Peasants' Revolt of 1381.

Manuscripts belonging to a secretive society of knights, clerics and craftsmen
began being written at that time, and continued in an unbroken chain until the
1700s. Some leading members of that society are known by name, and were active
in the stripping of powers from kings and the Vatican. Documentation exists
for all these things.

Throughout
the summer of 1381 there was a general ferment. Beneath it all lay
organization. Agents moved round the villages of central England, in touch with a "Great Society" which was said to meet in
London.

--Winston
Churchill

This
search for what the Templars did after leaving their Order comes at last to a
manuscript older than Cooke. This is the RegiusManuscript written about 1390, which referred to a related document earlier in
the 1300s.

--Sanford
Holst

Regius
manuscript

All
the details of these events, including the lives of individual Templars, have been recently published....

The earlier
work by Addison and Barber is now joined by the new book Sworn in Secret:
Freemasonry and the Knights Templar
from Sanford Holst. He is the
noted historian who wrote Amazonís #1 book on
the Phoenicians.
His new contributions resulted in his being elected to the prestigious Royal Historical Society in England.
Holst's
informative websites are read by more than half a million people each year.

Sworn
in Secret follows the roots of the
Knights Templar from Solomon's Temple to the
founding of their order, continues through their glory years, and plunges
deep into the years they were forced to take new roles in society.

This
journey of exploration follows the remarkable individuals whose lives shaped
the course of the Templars throughout their rise, fall and survival. We come
to know them as individuals and as part of this legendary order. These
surprisingly rich details bring the Templars to life more fully than we have
ever experienced before. Their lives, their dedicated friends and powerful opponents can
be in your hands soon.